December 22, 2012

Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions for Property Managers

With only a few days left in 2012, we thought we’d get you ready for 2013 with a list of our top 10 New Year’s resolutions for property managers, landlords and REITs.

1. Go paperless. Embracing digital technology is one of the most effective ways of streamlining your business, and of saving money and resources. Not only that, but trading in hard copies for soft copies leads to increased efficiency. Explore how setting up a paperless property management office may be a lot easier than you imagine.

2. Improve tenant communications. Establishing an easy way to correspond with your tenants opens the door to a comfortable, beneficial experience for everyone involved. Tenants will feel valued, and be more likely to want to stay in your building. As a property manager, you’ll be able to promptly respond to any issues or complaints, and ensure that tenants are satisfied with the resolution. Maintaining an online tenant portal offers an excellent, cost-effective means of improving communications.

3. Empower your tenants. Make your website more interactive so that residents have a quick, simple means of voicing their concerns – and a way of tracking the status of any requests or complaints. For example, you can create an online form that tenants can use to submit property maintenance requests.

4. Monitor KPIs more effectively. In order to attract and keep good tenants, it’s essential that your building have a reputation for high standards and consistent upkeep. One of the most important KPIs – and one that many tenants pay most attention to – is how well you maintain your building and respond to requests for repair. Before 2013, it might help to review maintenance KPIs and ensure that you’re performing to the standards you expect.

5. Green your property to conserve and save energy. You have every reason to make your building as eco-friendly as possible. It saves you money. It protects the environment. It’s more likely to attract conscientious, responsible tenants. That doesn’t mean you need to perform a complete overhaul on your property; small changes made over time can add up to have a big impact. Here are some valuable tips on greening as you go, so that with each upgrade or renovation, your building becomes that much more sustainable.

6. Get on top of social media. When it comes to communicating with current and prospective tenants, this is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal. Take advantage of the many ways you can use social media to promote your property management business and attract the right kind of people to your building.

8. Offer tools, technologies and amenities that your competitors don’t. Real estate is a tough market. Give your tenants a reason to choose you over the competition, so that life on your property is easier, more comfortable and more convenient. One way of doing this is by offering services or technologies, such as the option for online rent payment, that are cutting-edge and in line with what today’s tech-savvy tenants are looking for.

9. Screen your tenants more effectively. Renting to people who are a good fit for your building is in everyone’s best interests: yours, the tenants, and other residents on your property. The best way to ensure that you find good tenants is to carry out proper due diligence during the screening process – before you’ve committed to a lease.

By committing to these 10 resolutions, you can expect to see improvements in your property management process, leading to happier tenants and better profits.

From all of us at PropertyVista, we hope you’ve had a great year, and that 2013 brings even more success – for you and your business.

Comments

1Adam Cowley said at 4:56 am on January 8th, 2013:

I’m wondering if you see any value is using Syndication Software to post ads on Craigslist instead of doing it manually. We’ve made one such system at http://www.rooof.com, but we would appreciate hearing your professional opinion about it’s usefulness. Thanks! -Adam

2Joe Floden said at 11:08 pm on August 19th, 2013:

This is a good list. Can I add something that we hear when we change locksets? “It would be nice if the landlord told me no one else still had the keys to this place” So – would a feature sheet that said…10 Reasons to rent from us. #1- We change the locks- for your peace of mind #2 – etc etc I can see this working for #8 and #6 in your list

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Web based and simple-to-use, PropertyVista offers a suite of online tools designed for landlords and property managers who understand the importance of reducing vacancies, cutting risk and improving cash-flow through strong tenant relations.